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DTUS065 rev A.7 – June 27, 2014
V.2.3
Mesh (802.11s) Mode
In a 802.11s mesh network there are 3 kinds of devices. They all participate
in the process of packet relaying:
A
mesh station
has a functionality of its own (i.e. a laptop computer).
A
mesh access point
provides both “mesh” and “basic access point” facilities, bridging non-
mesh Wi-Fi devices to the mesh network.
A
mesh portal
allows other network types to be bridged to the mesh network. For example, a
portal would bridge Ethernet to Wi-Fi mesh.
All ACKSYS “WLn” products currently implement “station” and “portal”
functions. Products equipped with two radio cards can be used as mesh
access points.
Products
A
to
H
can communicate with each other.
Products
A,
B, D, E, G
provide Mesh portal functionality.
Products
C,
F, H
provide Mesh AP functionality.
Routing protocols
To determine the transmission path between two mesh points, a routing
protocol must analyze the network. 802.11s defines HWMP as a mandatory
protocol, and it has provisions to plug in other third-party routing protocols.
ACKSYS devices implement HWMP.
Security protocols
802.11s networks can use either no security, or the SAE security described
in section “
Preauthentication
”. This security is roughly similar to
infrastructure WPA/PSK.
